CTX S501BA review

With competition fierce to feed the current frenzy for flat-panel monitors, manufacturers seem to be slicing their profit margins even thinner than the panels themselves.

This is fantastic news if you're looking to replace your bulky old CRT monitor - not least because CTX has just launched the S501BA, a budget 15in panel for well under £200 excluding VAT.

The screen comes in a choice of three colours: boring beige, dark grey (which CTX calls black) and stylish silver. The S501BA's base is just 150mm deep, making it one of the most compact 15in panels we've seen. We liked the clean lines of the new design, which has all five adjustment buttons mounted out of sight on its right-hand side. Unfortunately, this makes them awkward to use as they all feel the same. It's a little too easy to push the power button instead of the menu button. The on-screen display is also confusing.

One bonus comes in the form of the two small speakers hidden away at the back. They're not the best we've heard - or the loudest - but they coped well with movie dialogue and music, as long as you're not a dedicated hi-fi buff.

The screen itself has a native resolution of 1,024x768 pixels - exactly what we'd expect of a TFT screen this size. A single press of the auto-configure button automatically tweaked its settings to give us a sharp, bright desktop with text that could be read easily. Brightness was more than acceptable - although if you're upgrading from a CRT, you'll probably notice a slightly dimmer picture. The backlight wasn't quite as even as that of Iiyama's ProLite E380S, which we reviewed in our September issue, but the CTX suffered no blurring of fast-moving pictures in DVD movies.

The CTX has no digital DVI input, but its standard D-Sub analogue input provides an admirably sharp picture - certainly better than that of any CRT for the price. All LCDs have perfect geometry, and the CTX is no exception. Straight lines appear straight on this screen, which is something you can't guarantee with a CRT monitor.

The CTX can't be viewed from quite as wide an angle as the Iiyama, but it's still good for a budget panel. Contrast was fine when set to the middle of its range, and our greyscale test screens showed a balanced range of tones from black through grey to white. Being a 'Class 2' monitor, there could be up to two dead pixels. Our test panel was perfect, though.

If you're a fan of clean lines and minimalist styling, the CTX is worth investigating. For just £15 more, though, the Iiyama's wider viewing angles and super-bright movie-watching mode help it cling on to its Top 50 Best Buy award.

Jim Martin